Kingston Penitentiary is a movie set again. It’s been used for a number of film shoots including Reacher and Alias Grace. Currently, a spy thriller called Angel Three is being filmed within the former prison’s walls.
The main character Sophie is an agent operating in East Berlin in the 1980’s.
“She helps people go from the east to the west,” said the movie’s producer Laurence Gendron. “Then something happens and then she has to help a particular case that will flip her whole world upside down.”
The film uses one of the penitentiary’s cells for some flashback scenes but the majority of the movie takes place in a one-room set built inside the prison.
Director Anita Doron says creative cinematography and lighting along with a good script set the pace and mood of the movie.
“Some of our shots are incredibly complex, the timing with the acting the scenes go on for five minutes, light travelling, intensifying phones there’s a lot going on,” said Doron.
Alex Jansen with the Kingston Film Office says unlike many past productions in the limestone city Angel Three is being entirely filmed in Kingston.
“Instead of large studio productions that come shoot and leave, we’re now doing a whole series of productions that are shooting entirely in Kingston,” said Jansen.
The municipality’s focus on growing the film economy has led to a deepening pool of workers and businesses able to support the TV and movie industry’s needs.
“80% of the crew is Kingston local, all kinds of partnerships from Improbable Escapes doing the set design, to Corcan doing partial construction, which is the offender release program through Correction Services Canada,” said Jansen.
Jansen says Angel Three is the second production this year to entirely shoot in Kingston and more are planned.
“In September we’ve got a locally produced sci-fi feature film shooting entirely in the area and in October we’ve got a horror film and I think there’s just going to be more of it,” Jansen told Global Kingston.
Angel Three is scheduled for 12 days of shooting and the shows producer anticipates the movie will start appearing on the festival circuit in the summer or fall of 2023.